Are gopher snakes and rattlesnakes crossbreeding?

Photo of the week: Birds of a feather flock together, but this cormorant was joined by a flock of pelicans one morning at the Lafayette Reservoir. Do you have a wildlife photo to share? Send a high resolution jpg to Joan Morris, jmorris@bayareanewsgroup.com.

DEAR JOAN: An outdoor camping friend of mine told me that in this area gopher snakes and rattlesnakes can mate, creating a poisonous gopher snake. I am gardening constantly in a "snaky" environment, and I wonder if that is true.

When I see a gopher snake, I am not as concerned as when I see a rattler. Am I wrong?

And on a different note: I had hummer feeders up before adding some decks to my house. Because the feeders would drip on the new decks, I took them down 16 years ago. I still have hummers coming to window near where feeder was, looking as if they want to know what I did with their feeder. How many generations would that be? I don't think your readers who were worried about being gone for a couple of weeks need to be concerned the hummers won't be back.

This beautiful gopher snake has no romantic plans with a rattler. (Courtesy of Anita Jones)

Nancy Casey

Morgan Hill

DEAR NANCY: I think your outdoor camping friend is pulling your leg or has fallen victim to an urban myth.

The story of crossbreeding snakes has been around for a while, but it isn't true. For one thing, gopher snakes lay eggs and rattlers have live births. I suppose that science might be able to create genetic offspring in a laboratory, but it's not going to happen in the wild.

There are crossbreeds of snakes, but the species have to be closely related to start with, and the rattler and gopher are not.

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I think the myth may have been started by the gopher snakes. They are nonvenomous and are generally good-natured. Lacking both the venom and the fear-inducing reputation of the rattler, when confronted the gopher snake will inflate its head, coil its body and shake its rattleless tail in a decent impersonation of the rattlesnake.

Unfortunately, the act often backfires if a human is fooled into thinking it's far more dangerous than it is.

So don't worry too much about snakes in your garden. They are there to eat insects and rodents, not bite humans.

The rattlesnake is the only venomous snake in California, and they don't want anything to do with us. Give them a wide berth, and everyone goes home happy.

As for the hummers, scientists have recently discovered that hummingbirds have amazing memories, remembering every feeder and plant that they have visited on migrations or around the neighborhood.

DEAR JOAN: In our backyard we have a small greenhouse in which a wasp set up a nest.

That nest produced eight or 10 baby wasps, and they all congregated around it, venturing out for short flights from time to time.

We also have a resident blue jay in the yard who considers the area his. He does his best to clear the yard of interlopers -- crows, squirrels and the like.

My husband and I were watching the other morning when the blue jay began harassing the wasps in the greenhouse and after attacking a number of them, he actually flew into the greenhouse and took the whole nest in his beak and flew away with it.

What's going on here?

Adrienne De Barrows

Walnut Creek

DEAR ADRIENNE: Jays not only eat wasps, they pick out the larvae and eggs inside of the nests.

Wasps have their place in nature, but they could have been a problem to you in your greenhouse. Your jay may have done you a big favor.